Madsen Hardy has a doctorate in English literature and is a freelance writer and editor. In the following essay, she discusses the meanings of work, recreation, and freedom in "Big Blonde."

For much of the span of the story's narration, Mrs. Morse is a "kept woman"—the mistress to a series of married men. Her role in the men's lives is to entertain them and to comply with their sexual desires, in exchange for which they offer her financial support. According to this arrangement, she doesn't need to hold a job or even to clean her own apartment. Her only obligation is to have fun and be fun. She goes out at night to drink and socialize with various male companions and appears to do very little else. Yet one of Mrs. Morse's complaints—one serious enough to drive her to attempt suicide—is...